Pershing Middle School - Reflections Yearbook (San Diego, CA)

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lW'hat does this mean? Who are these ?li he thought. ITve quit believ- ing in fairies ages ago. 'But his eyes had certainly not deceived him, for these tiny, weird men were fast approaching him, marching double quick, four abreast, with their leader walking along one side beating a drum and calling out, ltLeft, right, left, right, in a high-pitched voice. The little men were about two feet high, all dressed in brown, wearing high peaked caps. They had the most qualnt and wise expressions on their miniature faces. Soon the leader was almost near enough for Carl to touch him. Then he straightened up to his full height and said: ItMy boy, come, letls go to Mars. Carl opened his eyes wide. llWh-whafs that you say? he exclaimed, trying not to appear frightened or very astonished. ilVVould you take a trip to Mars with me ? the Brownie asked Carl. Who are you? How could we get there? the excited Carl demanded. lWVe are your Childhood friends, the Brownies, who took you too Visit Toyland in the Land of Nod so long ago, and now we have come to take you to Mars. You needn,t ask how we are to get there for PM attend to that. Carl had read a little astronomy and had become interested in the earth nearest neighbor, Mars. He wished to accompany the Brownies to Mars, but he could not believe in the supernatural so easily as he could when the Brownies took him to Toyland, so he asked, Have you invented a new kind of aeroplane to get there in ?ii llLand, no, the Brownie laughed at the idea. The Fairy Queen loaned us the very same magic boat in which we sailed to Toyland. We must be back by tomorrow. You had better hurry. We will have barely time to make the trip? The Brownie was fidgeting about nervously. llAll right, said Carl, putting his cap down, le ready? The Brownie called, ilObey the servant of the Fairy Queen, 0 worthy little boat. In an instant the little boat appeared before them. There was room enough in it for Carl and all the Brownies. The leader Brownie shouted, HAll aboard V They all climbed in. A number of the Brownies had oars. Carl was not allowed to take an oar, for what can a boy do with the magic oars used by the Brownies? Away the Brownies rowed the boat through the air. Carl enjoyed the smooth gliding. The air waves were not as boisterous as ocean waves. In what seemed to Carl a very short time the leader Brownie said, llWe are at Mars. Shall we go on shore ?i, . llSuref said Carl. He was curious to know what Mars looked like, but was a little timid about alighting on unknown shores, so he kept close to his friend, the Brownie, stepping carefully. It had been growing darker all the time. Now it was so dark that he could see nothing but a gray mist. Come on, said the Brownie, taking Carlls hand. After they had left the ship Carl felt that they were walking almost in space, only now and then feeling a solid bit of rock. They walked on for some time, but it was too dark to see anything. After a time he heard a noise like ten thousand dogs and coyotes howling all at once. They felt that objects were being thrown at them, landing near their feet, but never quite hitting them. ttHurryfi said the Brownie, lithey are throwing stones at us. They hastened to the magic little boat with its load of Brownies. They got in quickly, the Brownie took his oar, and away they went. In a twinkling they reached earth and landed with a bump beside the old apple tree. Carl woke up and began to rub his eyes. III must have been dreaming, he thought. llAnyhow I am glad I am on earth, and feel the solid ground beneath my feet. Fay Jessee, :21. a 49 .h

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When I had gone about twenty miles the girl wildly gesticulated, draw- ing my attention to a group of about sixty savages clustered about a gigantic young man who stood ten feet tall, but the savages had been too much for him and he was bound to a tree. The girl whispered, IISave him V I instantly whipped off my coat and for me it was an easy matter to scatter them around like leaves. As the last one offered more resistance than the others I had to throw him into the top of a high tree where he lodged in an eagles nest. I then noticed that the girl had released her lover from his bonds and was crying, My brother, my brother? and was pointing to a basket floating toward a cataract. Around it were the sinister heads of crocodiles. Clothed as I was, I jumped into the river and swam toward the basket. Brushing the crocodiles aside I seized the basket just as it hovered on the brink of the fall. Returning against the raging river was fatiguing work, but by taking long strokes I made the shore in spite of further opposition from the croco- diles and restored the child to its weeping sister. I glanced at my watch and saw that I had lost an hour since I met the girl. I was able to see the gigantic mountain towering in the distance, and taking long strides I rushed forward. I had covered half the remaining distance when I was confronted by a seemingly impossible barrier, a cliff with no foothold by which to climb. Luckily, however, there was a gigantic giraffe feeding on some berries that were growing at the top of the Cliff. I held out some salt on the palm of my hand and after it had bent its neck sufficiently to get its head near me I gave it the salt, and hanging on I let it lift me to the top of the cliff. There a gorrilla leaped at me from a tree but I stepped to one side and j'iu-jitsuing its arm I threw it over the cliff. I arrived at the mountain after several more adventures of a similar kind. Once I fought a bloody battle with a snake three feet in diameter, which I carried with me for a specimen. As I approached the mountain I started to go up a tree for a lookout when a panther sprang out at me. I grasped it by the tail by a quick move- ment, swung it around my head four or five times to jazz it up and then set the ferocious beast against the trunk of a tree and let it in its terrified scramble hoist me to the top. A few miles away I saw my uncle tied to a tree and grouped about him were a few savages examining the bird that abducted him. I jumped down from the tree and in a few leaps was among them. Bang! Bang! Bang! I caught the bullets in my bare hands and quickly hollowing one out I inserted some dynamite, fashioning a hand grenade, with which I destroyed the entire group. I liberated my uncle and displayed before his astonished Vision the snake, which he pronounced to be a perfect specimen of the rattleless rattlesnake. The object of our search thus being accomplished, we returned to our home. -Tom Meagher, I22. Carl,s Dream ARL WAS at home the hrst week after school was out. On a certain warm June afternoon of this Erst week Carl was sitting on the grass leaning against the apple tree, which was beautiful with blossoms. He was reading a book but soon became drowsy, and for several minutes had held the book closed With his hnger in the place where he had been reading. Suddenly he saw in the distance numerous small brown objects. As they drew nearer Carl could see that they looked like little men. m43m

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An Expected Punishment Y BROTHER was going to school. I also wanted to go but mother M said I was too small. Iteased and teased, however, and she finally said I could go and Visit one day. My, how happy I was to go to school! Even if it was only for a one- day Visit, that was better than nothing. I could scarcely wait for the day. But time is bound to pass and finally the day arrived. I set out feeling very important and walked beside my brother into the school house and tried to think I was just as important as any of them, but after a while I didnlt feel so proud. It seemed like everyone was looking at me just as much as to say, Ho, Ho, see whols here. It was not nearly as nice as I had expected. At last the bell rang and everybody came into the school house and took their places. Then the teacher called the first grade and told them to march up to the front of the room and as she pointed to the different words and sounds on the charts for them to name them. I marched up with my brother and stood beside him. Soon the teacher noticed that some of the children were not saying the words so she called out sharply, All who do not say these sounds as I point them out Will have to take their medicine? Now I knew what medicine meant, or rather I thought I did. In the way the teacher used it, she meant punishment, but to me it meant horrid stuff like castor oil and pills. How frightened I was! I couldnlt say the sounds, having never gone to school. I had terrible Visions of that teacher swooping down on poor little me with a great big bottle of medicineb and a spoon. My heart began to flutter and I trembled all over while I looked at that horrid teacher, hardly knowing what to do. To have to take awful medicine, and perhaps right before the whole school, and have them laugh at me! Oh dear! I wanted to cry and run, and above all to get away from that school business. I donlt know how I ever got through the rest of the day. Perhaps she was going to wait until the very last thing. Keep me in misery all day! Dear me, school was a bad dream. How glad I was to be at home safe and sound. a was surely puzzled about the mediciney -Blanche Whitson, ,24. Neighbors Will Quarrel ARL SAT on the back steps deeply interested in a book. An old dog lay by his side and wagged his tail occasionally to disturb a fly or mosquito. llThis sunls too hot! exclaimed Earl. le going to seek the shade. Come on, Tige, lets go? Off they went, down the walk that led to the old maple tree in the back yard. I had been reading in an old swing under the maple tree but had fallen asleep and my book lay on the ground when Earl arrived. Come on, lets have some fun? called Earl as he closed the gate. This sudden exclamation disturbed my peaceful slumber and I sat up and rubbed my eyes dreamily. llSic, ,em! Sid lemlll encouraged Earl, and Tige chased an old cat that belonged to one of our neighbors up a tree next to the one under which I was sitting. m50m